Pick "Pert’ Near," or Jesus

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071416.cfm

Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19
Matthew 11:28-30

We conceived and writhed in pain,
giving birth only to wind;
Salvation we have not achieved for the earth,
the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth.

Isaiah 26:18

According to Isaiah, humans can’t accomplish salvation, also called “eternal rest.” He made that conclusion about 2,800 years ago. “The inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth,” he said. Isaiah says we don’t have the skill set. 

We’re still trying, though. 

We haven’t given up just because a philosopher said we should. Some may think Isaiah comes across as a bit of a whiner, because for all of those 2,800 years folks have been ruminating and prognosticating on the secret to everlasting happiness despite fairly consistent failure. 

The methods and paths to man-made salvation have been legion. Along with showy and coordinated religious fervor we’ve added  transcendental meditation, fervent celebrity adoration, and awe-inspiring athletic wonders to our worship. None of them, however, has produced salvation and eternal rest.

In order to save the world as a whole and invoke individual (albeit nationalistic) happiness we have tried intensive combinations of force and creativity. Well meaning folks have wielded innumerable wars, created thought provoking ism’s, and designed hopeful health formulas. We’ve even taken the bold approach of using the full spectrum of cultural and political domination through nuclear weapons and intelligent drones in order to eliminate evil, correctly identified as the source of all unhappiness and death. No success there, though. Just a lot of destruction and collateral damage. 

Corporations have tried to create a sense of euphoric freedom, inventing fizzy Coca Cola, mind-altering pharmaceuticals, and anti-aging stem cells. Coca Cola and its ilk aren’t actual attempts at salvation, but because of the perception promoted by the products, and subsequent products on the market over the last 100 years, potential users of such elixirs secretly imagine salvific results within their reach. The salvation-influenced advertising addresses a desire similar to the purpose of wars and stem cells. “By golly, we can attain pert’ near eternal freedom, within limits. All we gotta do is  ______.” 

Fill in the blank.

None of these things really tries to give us actual eternal freedom, but they all suggest its appearance. We humans consistently and dramatically strive to attain Nirvana even if we have to lie to ourselves. Bit by bit we improve our lives so we can sit down and relax, take a load off, and extend our time away from work.

In 1802 inventors began experimenting with artificial light. More than twenty fellows attempted different artificial light approaches over the next 75 years. Edison, then, began his experiments. Almost 3,000 theories and 10,000 concoctions later, Edison fashioned the first marketable light bulb. 

The purpose of the light bulb originated in simplifying and automating the availability of light in order for folks to sit down and read a book, after we had worked all day, without having to stoke fires or burn oil. The eventual outcome simply extended our working hours. At first, the attempt brought easy-to-use light to the darkness. The fall out from the light bulb, though, connected us to a grid of energy that overwhelms our lives. The required electricity to light the independent world reframed what now constitutes a fully dependent world. We now find ourselves needing to buy thousands of electrical implements, automobiles and communication gadgets that plug in, light up, and demand to be maintained, polished, housed, upgraded, and replaced. Incredible.

In an attempt just to take a load off, life is pretty darned complicated and exhausting now. We need even more time to enjoy ourselves and get some dagnabbed rest. Time is the problem, we’ve discovered. While packaged automation became our industrial transformation into eternal rest, the limitations of time told the true story. Rest is not eternal on this path.

The cosmic geniuses took over the task. From 1905 until about 1960, following Einstein’s insights, which discovered the relative nature of time, the number of people who could manipulate the principles of physics grew exponentially from a few dozen into the millions. Today, there are promising developments to tweak time altogether and get us to permanent life. Einstein’s rather incomprehensible calculations for the average 8th grade mathematical mind changed the perception of the scientific community regarding time as a constant. Time isn’t constant. Now we know. But, that’s good news. If we go fast enough we can stay younger longer. Yes, if we travel at the speed of light, time will practically stand still. Isn’t that something? 

Discovering that elements of earth can produce safe and easily accessible light changed the world. Understanding that mass, acceleration and energy drastically affect the parameters of time changed our understanding of the universe.

These inspirational super human efforts suggest that regarding our restful salvation, our eternal happy existence, we just haven’t tried hard enough yet to get it. We may be getting close, though, right?

Not really. Science and heady discoveries still lack true transcendence into the eternal. We are rushing faster and faster, but only increasing the speed to our ultimate death. We live longer, but it goes by faster! We need mind over matter tactics in order connect us to eternity.

So, adding to the science and matter discoveries, the always present salvation gurus have morphed. The gurus have been arduously philosophizing and prophesying since before Socrates. Over time, they have concocted nearly the same number of theories about eternal rest as the folks who built the light bulb — right about 3,000. The gurus today speak to us with new excitement. They promise to extend our lives and help us to live indefinitely. How? They’ll take our science and our metaphysics, add in some kale, hummus and yoga, and give us attainable eternity. That sounds pretty darn exciting.

But everybody still seems to die. Even if we could all live to 120 years old we still die. Now, documented afterlife reports do exist, pumping up the life force offerings of the gurus. Folks claim they’ve had visits and even conversations with long thought dead people. Most of these claims and reports, though, fall under severe skepticism. 

The salvation gurus continue to work at it. The intensity of salvation preachers stretches all over the globe. Some of the religious intensity is masked by getting us to sit very still and even hold our breath. It all looks truly effective. Scriptural analysis across hundreds of both theological and godless denominations has discovered commandments, principles, proverbs, and aphorisms that come attractively close to living a life of fabulous perfection. We are told evil-free lives are void of conflict and filled with love. So far, the religious folks haven’t quite sealed the deal. Dead people still pile up like autumn leaves. All the leaves fall and don’t get back up. There’s no good answer for eternal rest, apparently.

Only one fella has a consistent following that doesn’t use any of the popular salvation methodologies, even though a bulk of his followers get sidetracked into mouthing the same aphorisms and mantras of the world’s religions. His name is Jesus, identified as the Christ of the Hebrews. He was born into a pretty obscure group of oddly dressed people, but for most of the world’s cultures all of time is measured before and after his earthly existence. He deserves our regard just for that reason.

2,000 years ago he performed miracles, cured the terminally ill, awoke the dead, and then subsequently conquered death. He promised eternal rest by coming back to life on his own and having a great old time on earth for about 40 days. Then he took off, assuring everyone that they can have the same thing if they just believe in him and let his Spirit into their hearts. Hmmm.

Jesus Christ. He had plenty of witnesses to both his capabilities as a miracle worker, setting all kinds of people free from pain and misery, and his resurrection, which signified eternal happiness. Honestly, though, the proof was only in that one pudding — his personal resurrection and ascension. 

In fact, nobody else who has believed this fellow has convincingly exhibited a successful eternal afterlife. They’re all dead, and pretty quiet about it. What we have to go on is:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Could this simple unscientific formula be true? Jesus ran no experiments which built up his case. Everyone so far builds truth upon consequential failure, one after the other, until he or she has proven successfully that there is an eternal rest, a salvation. Granted, none of them has been successful. Jesus, though, gathered no data as he went, wrote no white papers, manuals or books. He only quoted ancient texts, claiming they were about him. To secure his legacy he relied on the scribblings of fishermen, laborers, and a religious zealot named Paul to recount his deeds. Very unprofessional. He didn’t leave behind any formulas and his disciples all died along with everyone else. 

In fact, his miraculous deeds are all parochial and odd. No press releases, unless you consider the trials that condemned him worth attention. During his short three-year exercise in claiming to offer salvation, Jesus had little regard for science, or metaphysics. Jesus rubbed common dirt and spit into a cure for macular degeneration. It seems to have worked just that one time. And, he spoke only a few words, like “Get up,” and then a bunch of lame people walked, leprosy disappeared from folks who had no apparent value or position in the community, and blood stopped leaking from an annoying woman in a small village. These are hardly high profile events.

Our only background on Jesus was that he was trained in wood working. His followers infer he lived a life without evil intent, though, which does point out support for eliminating evil. But, again, it only happened to him. It’s impressive that he fostered love and truth wherever he went, but his exceptionalism at convincing folks over the next 2,000 years falls kind of flat compared with other superhuman records. For instance, his first attempt at a miracle didn’t happen until he was around 30 years of age. He shocked a village by turning gallons of water into wine, but it seems he was only doing so to impress his mother. Not exactly Mother Teresa or Mahatma Gandhi level social impact. His last miracle was filling a bunch of nets with fish. He’d done that one before. Sounds more like good timing. 

If Jesus is to be believed, finding eternal rest begins simply. Salvation results from taking on what simply happens to us during the course of the day. The program Jesus offers requires only a relationship with a God we cannot see, and an affiliation with folks who agree that Jesus is God. Christ followers are to be happy with everything that they get, even their own deaths, yet strive to serve everyone else and make their lives better, because it’s all part of Jesus’ grand plan. 

Jesus is the only self-resurrected fella on record. Maybe he’s right, but to believe he can live in our hearts and cement our salvation through a relationship just seems too easy to be true. We like our Einsteins, Edison’s, Mother Teresa’s, Gandhi’s, and Muhammad Ali’s. We like hubris, hard work, ingenuity, and pizzaz. 

Does Jesus really know what he’s talking about? The exceptional folks who get all the applause and publicity seem far more interesting. Granted, all of them are dead or just about to die, but can one resurrected fellow be worthy of our attention? Does Jesus truly fill in the blank?